Clothes drier



Sept. 7, 1954 J. E. KERCHEVAL CLOTHES DRIER Filed Jan. 7 1952 FIG. I.

44 INVENTOR JAMES E. KERCHEVAL ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 7, 1954 UNITED STATES sir OFFICE CLOTHES DRIER James E. .Kercheval, Monterey Park, Calif.

Application January 7, 1952, Serial No. 265,314

4 Claims.

water while clothes are being washed, .or which is otherwise too complicated and expensive for practical use. I am aware that various proposals have been made .Ior incorporating a dryer element as an integral part .of a washing machine,

but so far as I am aware none has gone into prac- 1 I ticai use for the above stated reasons.

It is an object of my invention to provide a clothes dryer construction which 'may be readily incorporated as an integral part of a washing machine or maybe utilized merely as adryer.

Another object is to provide ,a dryer-washing machine combination wherein iheated airmaylbe efficiently introduced into the clothes receptacle in the machine without permitting leakage of Water into the casing while the machine is being operated as a washer.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

For the purpose of making my invention understood, I illustrate in the accompanying drawings, and will now describe, a washing machine-dryer combination embodying one presently preferred manner of carrying my invention into practice, and for the purpose of the ensuing description I shall refer to said drawings wherein Fig. l is a perspective View;

Fig. 2 i a medial sectional view; and

Fig. 3 is a view taken on line 33 of Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, the numeral 5 generally denotes a washing machine casing having a back wall 5, a front Wall 6, a top wall ll, a bottom wall [8 and side walls [9. The front wall has an access opening 29 normally closed by a swingable door 22 whose center portion is provided with a window 23 closed by a transparent pane 24.

Within the casing there is stationarily supported, upon supports 26, an outer drum (it whose front end wall 3i curves inwardly at 32 to define a round opening 33. A conduit 35 communicates with the interior of the outer drum through the rear wall 36 thereof.

An inner drum or clothes receptacle it is mounted to rotate within and relative to the outer drum by means of a stub shaft 42 journalled in bearing 43 within a tubular housing Mi,

the housing being fixed to and extending through openings in casing wall and the rear end wall 36 of the outer drum. A v-pulley 46 is fixed-on theouter end of the shaft 42 exteriorly of the easing and is driven by a belt 47 from a conventional motor not shown. Shaft i2 is fixed'to the inner end wall it of the inner drum as by means of a plate 4-9 welded to the latter wall.

It will be observed that the inturned front wall portion :32 of the outer drum extends inwardly through an opening 50 provided in the front wall .51 of the inner drum to a "point inwardly beyond the wall 5 I, :so that as the innerdrum is rotated with the wet clothes therein or with water in the outer drum, water will not escape through the opening 50. Of course, suitable conventional water inlet and outlet valve controlled conduits, not shown, are provided to introduce wash :and rinse water into the drum :30 and to discharge it therefrom. The peripheral wall of the inner drum is provided with perforations so that water in the outer-drum may iiow into the inner drum through the perforations, and so that during any spinning of the inner drum to extract moisture from the washed clothes, the water may escape from the inner drum, and also so that hot air, introduced into the inner drum as hereinafter explained, may escape.

After clothes within the inner drum have been washed by rotating or oscillating the inner drum, the inner drum is further rotated to extract by centrifugal action as much as possible of the moisture remaining in the clothes, after which hot air is introduced by the means now to be described.

Within the bottom portion of the casing 5 I mount a power driven blower 50, of conventional construction, whose inlet 6| immediately overlies a heating element 62. An air outlet conduit 65, communicating with the blower outlet, has an end extension 66 communicating at its outlet end with an orifice 6'! in the front wall I6 of the casing, which orifice is normally covered by door 22, the wall I 6 carrying a gasket 70 surrounding said orifice.

The door carries an air manifold surrounding the window, formed by annular wall and annular inner plate 15a and defining an annular air chamber H. The plate 15a carries air discharge nozzles 86 communicating with the chamber and disposed to discharge air into the interior of the inner drum through the openings 32 and 50. The plate 15a has an inlet orifice 8| opening into the air chamber and disposed to register with orifice 6'! when the door is closed, that portion of 3 the plate 15a defining the orifice 8| bearing against the gasket 10 when the door is closed.

It will thus be seen that the door, which is hingedly mounted on the casing by hinges 82, carries within it the above described manifold which, when the door is closed, establishes communication with the hot air supply and discharges the air into the inner drum to dry the clothes therein, the air then passing out of the drum through the perforations 55 and finally out of the outer drum through the conduit 35.

I claim:

1. In a clothes dryer, a casing having a front wall provided with an access opening and an orifice opening through said wall, a clothes receptacle in said casing, a conduit in said casing communicating with said orifice, means for supplying hot air under pressure to said conduit, a door swingably mounted on the casing in normal closing relation to said access opening, and an air conduit in said door having its inlet end disposed to register with and engage said orifice when said door is closed and having its outlet disposed to discharge air into said casing through said access opening.

2. In a clothes dryer, a casing having a front wall provided with an access opening and an orifice opening through said wall, a clothes receptacle in said casing, a conduit in said casing communicating with said orifice, means for supplying hot air under pressure to said conduit, a door swingably mounted on the casing in normal closing relation to said access opening, said door having a transparent window therein, an annular air manifold mounted in said door inwardly of said window, said manifold having an inlet portion disposed to register with and engage said orifice when said door is closed and having circumferentially spaced outlet portions disposed to discharge air into said casing through said access opening.

3. In a clothes dryer, a casing having an access opening, a door closing said opening, a perforated inner drum mounted to rotate in the casing c0- axial with said opening, said inner drum having an end wall toward said access opening provided with a medial opening in register with said access opening, an outer drum surrounding said inner drum, an end wall of said outer drum curving inwardly and extending through said medial opening and having an opening coaxial therewith, an air manifold mounted in and carried by said door, means for supplying hot air under pressure to said manifold and an air nozzle carried by and extending from said manifold through said medial opening.

4. In a washing machine, a casing having an access opening in one of its side walls, a clothes drying receptacle in the casing and having a filling opening registering with said access opening, a source of hot air under pressure, a conduit having its inlet end communicating with said source of hot air under pressure and having its outlet end discharging through said side wall adjacent said access opening, a door swingably mounted on the casing in position to normally close said access opening, said door carrying a manifold member having outlet elements projecting into said filling opening in said receptacle when said door is closed, said manifold member having an inlet opening arranged to register and communicate with said conduit outlet end only when said door is closed.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,717,179 Altorfer June 11, 1929 1,755,465 Wilson Apr. 22, 1930 2,074,508 Hetzer Mar. 23, 1937 2,108,084 Strobridge Feb. 15, 1938 2,328,256 Breckenbridge Aug. 31, 1943 2,608,769 ONeil Sept. 2, 1952 

